What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting 101
Intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular over recent years, both as a way to lose weight and as a general tonic for improving one’s health. Its roots are ancient: Hippocrates, one of the founders of Western medicine, is reputed to have said, “everyone has a doctor in him; we just have to help him in his work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well…to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.”
In contemporary Western society, many of our ailments are preventable and indeed traceable to excessive consumption of poor quality food and alcohol. So it’s easy to see the appeal of intermittent fasting as a way of balancing out excess and combatting overindulgence.
But what is intermittent fasting exactly? The term covers a range of practices, but means, simply, alternating periods of eating with long stretches of not eating, but drinking water.
Research suggests (albeit inconclusively) that caloric restriction can be beneficial for our lifespans. Intermittent fasting is a simple way of eating less while also not losing out on necessary nutrition. It has been shown to fight free radicals — thereby enhancing the body’s resistance to oxidative stress — and inflammation. Both are precursors to many serious diseases and disorders.
Intermittent fasting can also improve mood. One interesting study on women showed that, yes, intermittent fasting made participants a bit more irritable, but it also led to “positive psychological experiences, such as increased sense of reward, achievement, pride, and control as participants reported increasing hunger and difficulty of fasting.”
The science would suggest that it is worth considering intermittent fasting — particularly if you are experiencing issues with dangerously high blood sugar or are overweight — can help rest the gastrointestinal tract, lower insulin levels, burn fat, and perhaps even slow the aging process. It’s not necessarily discussed in medical literature, but another benefit of intermittent fasting can be that you tend to enjoy food a whole lot more when you do eat!
How to Do Intermittent Fasting
There are a few methods of intermittent fasting, the most popular of which include:
Time-Restricted Eating
This involves consuming your daily caloric intake within a particular window. A typical 16:8 pattern means you eat during an eight-hour window — for example, from 8 am to 4 pm — but cut yourself off and just drink water, black coffee, or green tea from 4 pm to 8 am.
Research suggests that eating late at night can negatively impact weight gain and metabolism. So keeping your food intake restricted to a window earlier in the day can positively impact your biochemical markers like bad cholesterol and triglycerides, blood sugar, and sleep quality.
5:2 Fasting
5:2 fasting involves eating normally for five days a week and then restricting calories for two non-consecutive days a week. Typical daily caloric consumption is around 1,500-1,800 calories. On fasting days, the recommendation is for women to eat 500 calories and for men to eat 600. This effectively means eating one or two light meals, like tomato and broccoli soups and perhaps a handful of nuts. 5:2 fasting can be easier for some to manage than 16:8. For example, eating fewer calories on Tuesdays and Thursdays means that you can still have a “normal” weekend for eating.
Alternate-Day Fasting and Prolonged Fasting
Alternate-Day Fasting means quite literally fasting — only drinking water or other zero-calorie beverages — every other day. Prolonged periods of fasting could involve eating normally for 25 days and restricting calories for five days — consuming teas, supplements, and small amounts of food that supply necessary nutrients on those days.
Many people spontaneously skip meals or eat intuitively, which is less structured than true intermittent fasting but can still deliver many of the same weight and mood benefits. For example, it is easier to exercise on an empty stomach, so even skipping the occasional meal can lead to better health and lifestyle outcomes.
Other Considerations for Intermittent Fasting
To get the benefits of intermittent fasting, quality nutrition for your overall diet is still crucial. For example, it would be very unhealthy for your blood sugar levels to seesaw as you consumed foods high in saturated fats and sugar on your “off days” and then went straight into fasting days.
Intermittent fasting works in combination with a generally healthy program of nutrition, meaning lots of plant-based foods, limited refined or processed foods, limited alcohol, adequate hydration, and no smoking.
Possible Drawbacks to Intermittent Fasting
While intermittent fasting generally shows positive results on blood sugar and insulin levels — and can help men control pre-diabetes — one study showed that blood sugar control actually worsened in women after three weeks of intermittent fasting. This may be because women are generally more sensitive to calorie reduction than men and may also experience hormonal changes as a result.
Those who have experienced disordered eating in the past should be cautious about trying intermittent fasting. And even for people without a history of disordered eating, prolonged caloric restriction can lead to loss of muscle mass and other health considerations. This shouldn’t be a problem if you are utilizing an eating window or a 5:2 pattern, but potential fasters should still be aware of this before considering more ambitious fasting plans.
Many of the positive effects of intermittent fasting have also been more pronounced for the obese and those with high BMIs than individuals in normal weight categories.
Intermittent fasting also takes significant willpower. That’s why the MyLifeWell App offers classes to help make intermittent fasting easier and guidance on delicious and functional recipes to help you make healthy choices.
Taking Action on Intermittent Fasting
Knowing the benefits in the abstract is one thing, but taking action is another.
The MyLifeWell App’s classes and programs on intermittent fasting — as well as general nutrition — can provide the support you need. And the food part of the app can help optimize your overall health and nutrition, allowing you to take control of your wellbeing.
